No "Answer" For Plaintiff Who Abandons A Trademark

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (collectively GSK), the maker of a smoking-cessation product named Commit Lozenges, and rejected trademark infringement and false advertising claims brought by Natural Answers. Natural Answers, Inc. v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., Case No. 06-15084 (11^th Cir., June 13, 2008).

Plaintiff Natural Answers tried to enforce its HERBAQUIT LOZENGES mark against GSK's COMMIT LOZENGES mark. Natural Answers sold HERBAQUIT LOZENGES, designed to help satisfy cravings related to smoking, from 2000 to 2002. The lozenges were sold in drugstores, supermarkets, convenience stores and over the internet under the mark HERBAQUIT LOZENGES. In 1994 and 1995, Natural Answers filed unsuccessful federal trademark applications directed to HERBAQUIT LOZENGES.